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Webmaster’s Note: In 2011, Freddie wrote a long Huffington Post blog on an extraordinary production of MTI’s Willy Wonka Jr. at P 94M, a New York City public school that serves mostly special needs students with autism, Asperger’s Syndrome and other disabilities. (See links below for more.)

Myrna and I were so taken with the work being done there in the theater arts by P 94M’s principal Ronnie Shuster and lead teacher Tessa Derfner that we have made a contribution to ArtsConnection, specially earmarked to support the ongoing efforts of Ronnie and Tessa at the school.

This is a documented case study where students can’t sit still, cannot relate to each other, cannot communicate with each other, and get into fights and are lacking focus. Four months later, the same students help each other out, are resilient during all technical problems and emotionally disturbed autistic children discover a “pretend” vehicle for creative self-expression and sense personal success…. The “experts” are in shock.

Myrna and I urge anybody interested in Ronnie and Tessa’s work to consider making a similar “earmarked” contribution to ArtsConnection. The top link below takes you to a page showing how to inquire about this. The other links, as noted, provide the “back story” to this great theatrical experience.

Click here to see ArtsConnection contribution page. This provides the following info on how to make special inquires: If you have any questions or would like to make a gift of stock, please contact our Development Department at 212-302-7433 ext. 470, or email us at Email HendershotK

Click here to see Freddie’s original 2011 blog at the Huffington Post site.

Click here a summation of the Huffington Post blog, which appeared here on Freddie’s blog.

Click here to read a New York Times article about Ronnie Shuster winning a Mayor’s Award for Arts and Culture in 2011.

In his 20th Huffington Post blog, entitled: James and The Giant Peach Meets Josephine Baker and Bernadette Peters… Freddie announces the eight outstanding teachers who were the recipients of the Second Annual Freddie G Experience Award.

As with the first awards, these winners were selected from among the instructors who put on shows at the Broadway JR. Festival, held every year in Atlanta. (Both the Festival and Award Weekend are underwritten by Freddie and Myrna Gershon.)

The lucky eight were treated to an all-expenses-paid weekend trip to New York, which included a master-class with Broadway luminaries. (See below for the link to the Huffington Post blog and to photos, videos and details about the weekend posted on MTI’s website.)

On a recent trip to Arizona, Freddie and his wife, Myrna, visited the new Music Instrument Museum in Phoenix.

In this, his 19th blog for the Huffington Post, entitled: Target the Market (of the Spirit and the Soul), Freddie heaps praise on the museum and its sponsors: “Phoenix should be proudly promoting this everywhere it can,” Freddie writes. “[And] if Target is indeed the driving force behind this, as well as the many donors I saw listed, ‘Bravo’ again and ‘Thank You.’ Stand tall… Well done.”

If you feel like it, leave a comment … there … or here … or both!

Click here to see the blog at the Huffington Post site.Click here to see the museum’s website.Click here to see a segment CBS’s Sunday Morning did on the museum.

“On the sixth day of the sixth month of the sixth year of the Broadway ‘JR’ experience for NYC’s middle schools…,” Freddie says the city celebrated the conversion of “schools totally lacking in arts programs… into fully arts-integrated schools in six years … a short time to change their worlds (without any U.S. Department of Education support).”

In this, his 18th blog for the Huffington Post, entitled: Wizard Casts Spell Over Broadway Stage, Freddie describes how groups from the public and private sectors — including “The ArtsConnection” amd his own company, “MTI,” and its “Broadway Jr.” program — have brought self-sustainable theater and arts education to middle schools where there was none before.

In his 17th Huffington Post blog, Freddie showers praise on The New York Times’ Charles Isherwood for his piece on the passing of Broadway titan Arthur Laurents (pictured), the man who wrote the book — literally — for two of the greatest Broadway musicals ever: West Side Story and Gypsy.

Freddie also shares some of his reminiscences about Laurents, his good friend and Broadway colleague, who died May 5th at the age of 93.

It’s entitled: Mister President: The Kennedy Center for What? and is an open letter to President Obama, imploring him to stop impending cuts to arts education, specifically The Kennedy Center’s educational programs.

“In recognition of the Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer’s 81st birthday, the Kennedy Center has announced the inaugural recipients of the Stephen Sondheim Inspirational Teacher Awards,” Playbill-online reported on 22 March 2011.

“The awards were initiated March 22, 2010, by Music Theatre International CEO Freddie Gershon and his wife Myrna, who fund the grant. MTI represents the licensing rights to the entire Sondheim catalogue.”

“We realized,” Freddie said in his first blog about the award, “that we know a part of Steve that other people don’t, which is that he is much more than a great composer and lyricist and theater writer. There’s another legacy, which is his love of teaching.”

In his 14th Huffington Post blog, Freddie tells the moving story of how some special needs kids in New York City came together to create a show.

“This is a documented case study,” Freddie writes, “where students can’t sit still, cannot relate to each other, cannot communicate with each other, and get into fights and are lacking focus. Four months later, the same students help each other out, are resilient during all technical problems and emotionally disturbed autistic children discover a “pretend” vehicle for creative self-expression and sense personal success.”

“One … little boy who is Autistic and really non-verbal is so pleased at his success that when he finishes one of his dances, (in the middle of the show,) he looks down at the audience and shouts, ‘I did it, Papi!’ The audience responds, cheers in kind yells, ‘Go star!’ ‘You’re beautiful!’ ”

“[The kids] have shown compassion, support, care and connection with one another,” Freddie writes. “The ‘experts’ are in shock.”

The guys at iTheatrics, CEO Tim McDonald and Artistic Director Marty Johnson, have put together a fantastic “scrapbook” of news clippings and other coverage of the 2011 Junior Theatre Festival in Atlanta.

It’s in the form of a long PDF, which you can download, using the second link below. (This is a big file and may take awhile to download; but it’s worth it!)

But first, you might want to look at the first link, which is to a slide show of samples items from the PDF.

There is also another link below to the iTheatrics site, which is dedicated to “musical theatre education.” (And that’s music to my ears!)

And, finally, a link to a video about the festival which appeared on the nationally syndicated show, Teen Kids News.

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